The Wages of a Divorcee's Sin

He held her hand as they walked in the darkness to the passenger side where he opened the door and saw her clearly for the first time. His first thought was, "I don't remember her ever looking this beautiful. Her blond hair flows around her shoulders and even covers one of the ballooned breasts - He still could visualize her very large boobs and nipples in his mind's eye. Oh No! An erection is starting.., I had better say something." They both smiled broadly at each other as she sat down in the low bucket seat of his car and he said, "Megan, I had forgotten just how pretty you are when you're all decked out. You are eye-candy for a horny man - which is vastly different from the first time I saw you in this era at the food court. "Thanks for being my date."

"Greetings to you, ex-husband, and thanks for your compliment and for asking me on a real date this Saturday night. It's been years since I have danced so you will need to be patient. To be quite truthful I am trying to win your heart with my beauty, although you will have already figured that out before I even thought about it."

Trying to divert the conversation from a discussion of something light to something heavy he asked, "Not any of the men in your life danced after you left Boston?"

She replied, "I did some modern dancing to rock music, but ballroom dancing? Sad to say, 'no.' In fact, I haven't done any ballroom dancing since you and I celebrated our 10th anniversary. I have done enough of the modern grunt and groan with jerky movements stuff to know that I don't like it. yuk!"

"I haven't done any either because El is not a trained dancer at all but she did learn some steps. The real problem is that both of us spent too many hours working. Before El, though, I regularly danced at about 3 studios after you and I split."

As we drove towards the Marriott Quincy we relaxed and chatted about how Kathy and I got along our first week together, her classes, one essay a student had written that was actually interesting to her, and finally she asked, "I would have expected that after your Prize was announced you all of a sudden became a celebrity and got invited to lots of parties and met lots of people, and had been seduced by some rich lady who had no idea what you are about, but would be cheered by her friends if she arrived on your arm?"

"Well, Megan, I did all of that and grew weary of it within two weeks - its almost funny that the only pleasing fallout from the celebration was that my consulting business picked up to the point that I don't have time to have a life anymore. But I have taken time to have a life with her since Kathy identified herself to me in the mall two months ago. We do things together. I am even contemplating paying for her some dance lessons if she would like to take them."

She said, "I feel comfortable that she will rebuild her life one way or the other into one worth living - your influence from day one was such my influence is slowly being erased from her mind, and rightly so. You two learning to like each other is a first order miracle in my mind - thank you so much for taking an interest in her."

"Changing the subject, Megan, what kind of queries are you getting with your new profile on the dating site?"

"Funny you should ask, just three in two months to me. I have written 8 candidates and have had zero responses. It appears that I must soften and fluff up my profile to get some responses. But, logically that would be counterproductive, wouldn't it? Why? Because I would only get some one date date opportunities but for what end? You people who use your brain have a decided advantage over others in that you don't waste your time with someone who can only talk about what they saw on TV - or, worse, the only thing that is important to them is what is important to everybody else. Spare 'the-new-Megan-under-construction' from that nonsense."

They pulled into the parking garage of the Marriott and he opened her door like a gentleman and said, "The food is good according to one write up and they have a piano-bass-drums trio for entertainment, and there is a postage stamp size dance floor so lets enjoy ourselves."

They had a marvelous time together and having a real dance partner once again was super for Jere. They even struck up a conversation with an older couple with whom they joined at their table. The surprising thing was lots of songs had rhythms that were just right for traditional smooth ballroom dancing. At midnight, the couple left and so Jere and Megan left because both had had a limit of alcohol and felt very good. After driving back at her house, they sat out front with the engine idling in the chill. He still hadn't hugged or kissed her although he continued to hold her hand.

He asked, "Megan, may I ask a question that has been in my mind all week?"

"Please do, Jere."

"If we were to have sex again, what do you think the chances are that you would even be able to feel me inside of you?"

She took a breath of air to remind herself once again of Jere's bluntness and finally responded, "Neither of us will ever know if we don't try, will we? Heh heh." With a grin on her face she continued, "But, I will tell you this again. I was infatuated with an idea - not a man. My sex partners were 'bam-bam thank you ma'am' intellectuals and pseudo ones at that whose largest drive was decidedly not their sex drive. You might want to make a note of this but people out to fix the planet never make good lovers, period. The men I copulated with as such either had to eat me into having an orgasm or left me with having to use my dildo when the date was over - which I still use by the way."

"What about the one who caused you to lose your position at the community college?"

"He was a Pakistani married to a Black Woman and I was set up. In fact the only reason he succeeded in seducing me was because he accused me of bias since he was an Islamic Mid-Easterner - as a fundamentalist Multi-Culture enthusiast I took up the challenge to fuck him. It is no secret that I have done some stupid things, dear ex-husband. If we are going to get to know each other again, though, then the ugly things like that are open for discussion just like the nice things. Besides all that, however, not one man had a huge cock that, as a porno story might read, 'ruined me for another man.' Reality doesn't work like that, Jere."

He responded, "You have given me something to think about. Logically, harping on the errant sexual thing solves nothing and I should only focus on the future stability of your mindset - given that you will never again get on the particular bandwagon of Multiculturalism, what about other ones that come along where your peers are jumping on them gah gah? Will you be swept up again?"

"Wow, Jere. Now you have given me something to think about. I know that you are unimpressed with what is popular - for example, I don't think you have ever voted for a politician who won an election when you bothered to vote, did you? But should I cut that 'life line to others' that tell me what I should think and what to like and what is good for me? Do I even want to? Hey! I will mull that over. When we were married, I always focused on something else when you talked like this - that way I wouldn't embarrass myself when I chose to ignore you every time you asked a very deep question to ponder. Now, I continue to feel my whole insides relaxing. Jere, If you should continue to socialize with me, I will have more thoughts on the subject as we go along. Thank you so much for a wonderful time tonight."

As Jere drove home he pondered out loud to no one, "Her mind is so screwed up until she has become a complete 'charge-off.' Sad that something like that happens to someone I loved once, but that is the way of the world."

In the following 3 weeks Megan was almost absent from Jere's mind as he was very busy on two projects, and was at his display board for long hours trying to solve a problem for a client that might really increase his income. Of course he felt sorry for Megan but he knew he couldn't fix her broken life, and that all he could do was wait to see if she did it herself. But that would take years and Jere had no such patience. In the mean time, just to get out of the house he had earlier signed up for a group dance lesson at a very large and popular nearby dance studio mostly for the social aspect of it. He was horny, had not heard from El - and had begun to suspect the worst - and there was a vanishingly small chance that he could meet a new tolerable 'fuck buddy' at the studio. At one point, he thought, "How about a paid escort? Business is good and I can afford it. Ugh. Hmmm. Maybe someone will present herself at the coming Mathematics conference. Fat chance!"

On Wednesday he and Kathy were having breakfast together at the kitchen bar, and he said, "I will be conferencing in Chicago tomorrow through Sunday afternoon, and the airport limo should drop me off so that I get home about the same time as you leave for work on Sunday. If you want to invite your mother over to spend a night or two while I am out, go right ahead. The couch makes into a single bed and you can find linen and blankets in the pantry if you two do that."

She said, "Oh Daddy, she comes by to see me at the shop and I always spend my break time with her when she does. I believe that is enough visiting."

She noticed that his frustration rose and he said, "Your mother loves you in spite of her checkered past. Whatever destructive things she did to you, they were not willful acts of evil!"

"I see your point, Daddy, and I will call her. But I have a question: Were the destructive things she did to you and your marriage 'willful acts of evil'?"

"Wow daughter! You have asked a question that will cause me to consider carefully. I will have more to say on that when I return. But, my airport Limo is due in two hours and I have lots to do before then."

——-

Jere Jenkins stood in the check-in line at the Chicago convention hotel. He was reviewing the applied math paper he was presenting the following day ignoring the people around him. Since he was not in academia any longer he didn't expect to encounter many peers from the old days who would still recognize him on sight, but there were a few friends and former students still around. His Proceedings schedule was heavily marked up to call attention to the Presentations of interest to him during the three-day conference (applied Math for bio-tech, nano technology).

Jere heard Eleanor Parkman's laughter before he saw her. Turing around he saw a group sitting in a circle of lobby lounge chairs in front of registration chatting and revisiting each other. The small group was speaking German loudly indicating they were from institutions in the German speaking world. Jere couldn't follow any of the conversation as everyone spoke too fast for his limited practice speaking German recently. He said to himself, "So now you know, Mister Jenkins, why communication from her is way over due." He breathed deeply entering a kind of meditation mode to calm his mind. This enabled him to plan his response to her being here since the two of them would have coordinated their meeting long before the actual date had she had been interested in joint activities."

That evening at the welcome cocktail party he found a number of friends who congratulated him on his Prize and they amiably chatted mostly about academia and tight budgets. People came out of the woodwork to congratulate him as word spread. But, there was no Eleanor.

Looking at his watch and thinking about going about 15 minutes before the planned ending of the cocktail hour, he was making his way to the exit when she walked in on the arm of a very tall but young looking man. He had very blue eyes and platinum blond hair and could have played a Gestapo officer in one of the WWII movies being filmed. Jere stopped in front of her and said, "Hello Number 1."

Once Jere entered graduate school as a young man the first order of business was to practice presenting a stone face. The theory was that emotions play no part when discussing their science but that habit bled over into other areas. By now the Bostonian had mastered that art to the point that it was second nature and no matter what, presenting the 'stone face' was automatic - albeit the mental images in his head was anything but calm. So as he walked up to her showing the automatic 'say-cheese' smile that was glowing. He noted that she had done the same, so the young man with her was oblivious to the fireworks going on inside their two heads.

Not surprised because she fully expected to meet him here, she said "Hello Number 7. Jere Jenkins Meet 'Number 8,'" and then stated the German's name and continued by saying, "He is a visiting Physics Professor from Max Planck, and, Horst, you read that Jenkins just won the Prize in Applied Math."

Horst just smiled and shook hands. Jere responded, "Eleanor, about the only change in my life is that I have re-established a good relationship with my estranged daughter. How are your twins?"

"Thanks for asking, Jere. One will graduate soon and plans to go to graduate school while the other is no longer in college and took a job."

Jere said, "By the way you have an interest in some property in Boston that I want to purchase. Will you look for an email that details my offer?"

"Yes, my email address hasn't changed and I will be looking for it. Expenses are very high and pay is meagre so unloading that will be a relief. Speaking of expenses, we will be spending the Christmas Holidays skiing in the Alps. It's been a while for me since I was on a pair of skis and that, too, will require ski lessons and be expensive."


The two men smiled at each other and Jere said, "Nice to run in to you Parkman - are you giving a paper here? I have only looked at the Proceedings Schedule of the Applied speakers."

"Yes, on Friday. I hope you will come. I will be attending yours tomorrow because Horst is very interested in your topic. By the way I know he would like for you to speak slowly because he hasn't got his solid footing in English yet."

Jenkins said nothing but smiled and continued out the door. In his room, Jere considered going to the bar for one drink but decided against it. So instead he used the time to knock the socks off the people who would attend his presentation tomorrow. He knew his field was hot right now so the room should be SRO since his recent Prize for a related topic was in the write up of his biography. That also meant that he would need to practice in front of the mirror tonight and ask and answer himself any question that the attendees might pose at the Q&A."

Room Service interrupted his rehearsal at 10 P.M. bringing food and after eating dinner it was right back to rehearsal. His head touched the pillow at 1:30 Chicago time.

The next morning feeling very good after sleeping well because of his high carb dinner, Jere made his way into the presentation room carrying his eTablet to the projector operator and setting it at the start point and performing a couple of test visuals. Looking around, his first shock was that it was a large room and the second was that all the chairs were taken and several people were standing and the noise level had risen appreciably as the attendees were awaiting his lecture and were still coming into the room.

Fifty minutes later his presentation ended to very noisy applause - usually every speaker gets some courtesy applause, but that given him really made him glad for all the effort he put into his rehearsal last night. The following Q&A also went without a hitch because he had worked out all the answers to questions he was likely to get in his room in lieu of sleeping and drinking last night. He never saw Eleanor and her new 'Number 8' in the room, although he didn't look for them either.

Since he missed breakfast his next goal was to make his way to the coffee shop, and he did so with people tagging along to ask more follow up and 'what if' questions. At one point a lovely and unusual voice asked a how-to question on an application he happened to have completed work already for one of his clients. He asked, "If your budget will allow my consulting with you, I have developed equations for a flexible nano- drive shaft where the prototype built is being studied. I certainly have some ideas that I would share," as they exchanged business cards he noticed that she was a nice looking Asian with jet black hair who radiated a simple grace. Not pretty, but her tight face muscles gave her an almost smiling and playful look. Jere noticed that her arms were muscular and he forced himself not to smile as a flirting gesture - he guessed she was heavy into aerobic exercising as well as strength training. He asked, "In fact if you will have a cup of coffee with me now while I have breakfast, I'll toss a few pointers where you might investigate on your own assuming you wind up with a fixed budget."

She replied, "Oh thank you! I would love to do that so that I can minimize dead time awaiting my next presentation I have marked for attendance at 12:00 P.M."

Jere was enjoying his breakfast steak and chatting shoptalk with the lady and it pleased him that she was actually making notes as he talked. After a while he asked, "Where are you from," pausing to look closely at her, and then look at her business card and finally said, "June Chin?"

"Hartford. I am a contractor with a Yale group and we are trying to get major funding by grinding out Grant Requests like clockwork. Your presentation this morning along with the notes I have taken while you ad libbed while eating are the outline of a draft of the next grant request I will write."

"Hmm Hey! June Chin. Here is hoping that when you pull that virtual handle again the hearts will line up on that slot machine for your work. But, aside from that Hartford is right down the road from Boston. May I call you June - please call me Jere?"

"Oh please do, Jere. I have no colleagues here and I really appreciate this opportunity to hang out an hour with you - it seems that everybody here is with a group, except me."

He smiled and said, "And me. Lets meet here at 3:00 after the 1:30 presentation. We may like each other well enough to form our own small group. You game?"

"Yes, Jere," she said while offering her hand for him to shake.

--------

In Boston Kathy awaited the arrival of her Mom, Megan, at the subway station. She came dressed warmly for the one plus mile walk to Jere's condo carrying a small overnight bag. After their greeting there was a hesitant hug of necks but afterwards her Mom clung to Kathy for a moment. She finally relaxed and hugged her visitor warmly. After the extended greeting and small talk they began walking.

Nothing was said until after several cars had slowed, showing an interest in two nice looking ladies walking towards Boston Bay, when Megan said, "Its obvious to me that the sight of you stirs the passions of some passers by - enjoy it because at my age only the dead batteries bother to look. I do believe the guy in the red SUV will turn around and come back to offer us a ride. If he does, should we take him up on it?"

Kathy replied, "I think not, as walking is more healthy and soon we will come upon the public beach and the sight of the ocean always relaxes me. Besides that, the overwhelming probability is that he has more problems than either of us that go along poorly with his erection. Heh heh."

Once inside Jere's condo Kathy explained about her visitor's accommodations and said, "Since we have both tonight and Saturday night together would you like to go out or sit and talk or what do you have in mind?"

Her Mom said, "Lets talk about your Dad tonight if you don't mind. Before I get into that, though are you taking a vacation day since your days off are Sunday and Monday?"